Local paper says: Dagupan dumpsite deal ‘stinks’

DAGUPAN CITY — A local paper exposed what it claimed was a "stinking deal" of the city government in the purchase of a lot for its planned dumpsite from a business associate of City Mayor Benjamin Lim in nearby San Jacinto town at a price more than double its market value and without the benefit of a land title.

The local weekly The Sunday Punch, published by Ermin Garcia Jr., exposed the deal after the city council unanimously passed last Feb. 7 an ordinance ratifying the proposed deed of absolute sale worth P16.1 million for a 299,932-square-meter piece of land in Barangay Awai, San Jacinto to the city government for its use as site of a landfill project.

Lim, however, told The STAR that he is challenging Garcia to file a case against him if he thinks the deal, which will be sealed next week when the city government pays the agreed amount, is anomalous.

"The deal is above board and I challenge Mr. Garcia to look for a lot ideal for a sanitary landfill and approved by the DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources) and sell the lot to us at a price similar to our deal, and we will buy it," he said.

Lim said the city government received other offers for pieces of land in San Fabian, Labrador and Sual towns, but that they were priced higher, with one 12-hectare lot costing P60 per square meter.

According to The Sunday Punch, the market value of the San Jacinto property is estimated at P25 per square meter. The ratified absolute deed of sale, however, pegged the buying price at P53.75 per square meter, it noted.

The local weekly cited records in San Jacinto showing that Jose Mariano Cuña, a known close associate of Lim and a mall owner here like him, bought the land from its original owner late last year for P7 million or at P23 per square meter.

It quoted landowners in the area as confirming that the value of land there is no higher than P25 square meter. The turnaround price to the city government is P16 million.

The appraisal committee which Lim created, composed of the city assessor, engineer and treasurer, recommended the site as "having reasonable value of about P50.90 per square meter."

The Sunday Punch reported that the city councilors ignored the absence of a provision in the submitted draft of absolute deed of sale citing the land title covering the San Jacinto property.

The deed, it said, merely cited a tax declaration number as reference. In other words, the city government is buying a property that is still clearly under litigation, it added.

But Lim said, "Where can you see lots in the mountain areas that are titled? They have tax declarations only but have ownership. We will have (the land) titled after we pay the amount."

Besides, Lim said there was a pre-inspection approval by the DENR. The department, he added, will conduct a social acceptability survey after the lot is paid for next week.

"There are unseen hands insinuating I made money out of the deal and there are unseen hands polluting the minds of the residents of San Jacinto. Others are also talking to the members of the municipal council to reject the idea of dumping our garbage in their town," Lim said.

But he said the proposal is for the dumpsite to be jointly used by San Jacinto and Dagupan and that it will be a sanitary landfill.

Residents of Barangay Awai, who oppose the landfill project, said the land, formerly a part of the 92-hectare estate of the late Juan Fernandez, former mayor of San Jacinto, is covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.

The land is reportedly still under retention and litigation by the Agrarian Reform Council.